Graduated Driver Licensing Laws (GDL) by State

Highway Safety Laws by State

GHSA November 2016 (A complete chart of all states, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands’ cell phone and texting bans)

Hand-held Cell Phone Use: 14 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands prohibit all drivers from using hand-held cell phones while driving. All are primary enforcement laws—an officer may cite a driver for using a hand-held cell phone without any other traffic offense taking place.

All Cell Phone Use: No state bans all cell phone use for all drivers, but 38 states and D.C. ban all cell phone use by novice drivers, and 20 states and D.C. prohibit it for school bus drivers.

Text Messaging: Washington was the first state to pass a texting ban in 2007. Currently, 46 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands ban text messaging for all drivers. All but 5 have primary enforcement. Of the 4 states without an all driver texting ban:2 prohibit text messaging by novice drivers, 1 restricts school bus drivers from texting

The Kulesh, Kubert & Bolis’ Law, passed by the State of New Jersey became effective July 18, 2012.

It enpowers prosecutors to charge those driving illegally using a cell phone

as being reckless. The law allows criminal charges to be filed, such as

assault by auto or vehicular homicide, if the motor vehicle crash causes

serious bodily injury or death.

Due to the unfortunate circumstances in which New Jersey driving laws

were written at the time of Toni and RJ’s crash, sentencing of the the

offender included a two year loss of license and a $257 fine. Additionally,

Distracted Driving Laws by State

GHSA 2015 ( Includes drunk, drugged and aggressive driving, passenger restraint, helmet laws and more – Click on the U.S. map for any state to review the highway safety laws

Graduated Driver Licensing Laws (GDL) by State , GHSA November 2016 (A complete chart of all states, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands’ GDL laws)

Since novice and young drivers have the greatest crash rates, with motor vehicle crashes being the leading cause of death for young drivers, many states have a Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) law with interim steps before full driving privileges are granted. The programs vary from state to state. Below are a few of the highlights:

Cell Phones/Texting: 38 states and D.C. ban all cell phone use by novice drivers (See GHSA’s Cell Phone laws page for more information.)